132 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



ST. LUCIA AGOUTI 



DASYPROCTA ANTILLENSIS Sclater 



Dasyprocta antillcnsis Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1874, p. 666 (St. Lucia, West 



Indies). 

 FIG.: Sclater, 1874, pi. 82 (colored). 



In November 1874, two agoutis from the island of St. Lucia, 

 West Indies, were presented alive to the Zoological Society of 

 London and were shortly afterward described as a new species 

 by Sclater, who, however, compared them only with the very 

 different Dasyprocta punctata of Central America. His colored 

 plate shows an animal of closely similar appearance to the D. 

 rubatra of Trinidad or the D. albida of St. Vincent, so that 

 there can be no doubt of the near relationship of these two. 

 That the name may stand for the island animal as a valid race, 

 however, is indicated by a comparison of two skulls from skins 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, taken on St. Lucia 

 probably about 1880. 



This agouti is nearly the same in size and appearance as D. 

 rubatra, but in the skulls available it has shorter nasals, which 

 seem more narrow and tapering distally. The rostrum is 

 shorter, and the incisive foramina are prolonged posteriorly 

 to the meeting of the premaxillary with the maxillary, instead 

 of ending in advance of that point. How far these characters 

 will hold with a larger series remains to be seen. Nor is it 

 certain whether agoutis from other islands of the Lesser 

 Antilles are locally different. 



No recent information is at hand as to the status of the 

 agouti in St. Lucia at the present time. On the neighboring 

 island of Dominica Allen and Chapman (1897) recorded a speci- 

 men from the forested part, and it was said to be still common 

 in the interior. On Montserrat it occurred also until at least 

 very recent years, for the United States National Museum has 

 a specimen received in 1902 from that island. The skull of this 

 individual shows a number of peculiarities, which if borne out 

 by additional skulls might warrant naming the agouti of this 

 island as a distinct local race. Agoutis of this type must once 

 have been common on St. Kitts, for Du Tertre (1654) and 

 Labat (1742) both mention them two or three centuries ago. 

 Two skins from this island are recorded in the catalogue of 

 mammals in the Museum of Comparative Zoology as having 



